


Haunted Doll Watch

by traptrixnepenthes



Category: Future Card Buddyfight
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-14
Updated: 2019-08-14
Packaged: 2020-08-23 06:04:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,616
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20237971
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/traptrixnepenthes/pseuds/traptrixnepenthes
Summary: a friend and i have had some conversations about how--and if--kyoya and tasuku would become parents...and the answer is by divine intervention, by the waythis is set during ace era!





	Haunted Doll Watch

Tasuku wasn't sure exactly when it had started, but it was beyond noticeable now. Books from shelves were found scattered and set open as if to save their place, the expensive pens from Kyoya's desk were being used to scribble pictures on the backs of important documents, and most pressingly, anytime they bought anything sweet, it seemed to disappear as soon as they took their eyes off of it. And now, to top it all off, Tasuku was starting to feel like he was being watched. Whenever he turned his head to see who it was, he saw someone run behind whatever corner they'd been watching him from--but whoever it was couldn't have been anyone but a small child, judging what little of their silhouette he could see.

He dropped a stack of mail on Kyoya's keyboard, the only way to interrupt him when he was focused. "I think we're being haunted."

"Oh, good. Finally." In retrospect, Tasuku should've expected this kind of response, especially from the man who'd made a hobby of buying every single "haunted doll" he heard of because he was bored. Tasuku had tried to rationalize it by telling himself rich people all had their eccentricities, but that had been before an _actual_ ghost had showed up. "Do you know which one it is?"

"No." And, as always, here Tasuku found himself, talking about ghosts as if they were a real thing. "Shouldn't you know which one came with a ghost attached? It's _your_ collection."

Kyoya shrugged, clearly not caring that much. He picked up the stack of mail and started leafing through it. "What makes you say we're being haunted, anyways? If I'm being honest, I never thought you'd play along with me like that."

"It's not playing along, I'm just...worried." Tasuku explained what had been happening as Kyoya sorted their mail. "Either we've got someone living in the attic, or a ghost."

"Hm... I'd noticed all that as well, but I thought it was just Jack being sloppy."

"He's not sloppy!" Kyoya grinned, a still-insufferable expression that meant Tasuku had just fallen for another joke. "...That's beside the point. What should we do?"

Kyoya dropped the rest of the mail back onto his desk, where it was going to be forgotten until tomorrow. "We investigate, of course. It'll be just like in Ghostbusters."

"What?"

Kyoya frowned at him. "Casper?"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Yo-kai Watch?"

"That was twenty years before I was even born."

Kyoya sighed pityingly and stood up from his desk chair. "Tasuku, you are just so..._uncultured._ Well, I suppose it's just one of your charming points." He stepped over to Tasuku, who was feeling very childishly superior about the two and a half inches he had on Kyoya. He'd always said he'd grow taller than him, and he had. "Like how you still believed in Santa until I told you."

"Can you _please_ stop bringing that up? It's been years, and it's not my fault Jack and Takihara kept it up for so long."

"I suppose not, but that doesn't make it less cute."

Kyoya smiled at him, and Tasuku knew he'd lost that battle. There was just no winning against Kyoya's silver tongue, but that was a lesson Tasuku had learned years ago.

From Kyoya's office, they went to their bedroom, which was where Kyoya kept most of his collection. Antique porcelain and bisque dolls, some old plastic kids' dolls with now-tangled hair, and his most recent acquisition--a fabric doll with pink buttons for eyes and long hair made of white yarn, tied with a red ribbon that Kyoya'd had to replace because the first one had been falling apart.

He treated all the dolls he collected kindly, untangling their hair or restringing ball joints, mending their tiny clothes and shoes, even painting over cracks or using a small pair of tweezers to replace eyelashes. Tasuku liked watching him work--as with everything Kyoya did, he would always focus on it singlemindedly, and it was all meticulously, carefully planned and executed. More than once Tasuku had thought to himself that his ghost hunts weren't going well was because it'd be hard to have an upset spirit when its vessel was being so well cared for. He didn't say it aloud--he didn't need to, because Kyoya already knew--but this was something that Tasuku found charming about him, too.

"It's probably this one," Kyoya said, lifting the white-haired doll carefully. "You said it seemed like a young child?"

"Yeah, probably no more than ten or twelve years old." Tasuku took the doll from him carefully--he didn't know how old it was, and didn't want to accidentally rip the stitching or something. It was just old fabric and thread, with a simple black dress and red leggings, and nothing about it immediately jumped out at him. "...If it really is a ghost that age, that's a bit sad."

"It's really just like us to attract someone else who had to weather a terrible disaster." That thought hung heavily between them for a moment, but there was no reaction from the doll. "Well, let's invite our guest to dinner, shall we?"

He said it so naturally that Tasuku didn't even bother questioning it until after they'd set a third place at the dinner table and put the doll in a chair. "Why are we--"

"It's just basic manners, Tasuku. And I imagine that if our speculation is correct, then we should be treating someone who has seen such hardships exactly like this." Which meant Tasuku, as the better cook of the two, was going to have to make extra portions. "...It's our responsibility as adult to help children have a better future."

Tasuku wanted to counter that this was just a ghost, just a doll, not even something they had proven existed yet--but Kyoya was taking it seriously, and that made him pause. Both of them still felt the repercussions of the Disaster that had happened almost thirty years ago now, and Tasuku had to admit that if he'd encountered a child who'd gone through something like that, he'd be acting the exact same way.

Kyoya was the stereotypical bleeding heart--he'd once wanted to make the world a happy and peaceful place, and he'd been willing to do anything for the sake of that goal. He wasn't so extreme now, but he'd never lost that driving motivation, and so despite Kyoya's teasing and attitude, here Tasuku was, still right by his side the same way he had been so many years ago. Or maybe not quite the same way.

Tasuku made enough dinner for three people.

The two of them didn't eat together often, on account of their very different and very busy schedules, so even if the ghost was just an excuse, Tasuku was glad they had the chance for this. Kyoya's interrupted work was long forgotten now, and Tasuku hoped it'd stay that way until tomorrow. Once they sat down with their plates, with a third one set in front of the doll, Tasuku had been ready for probably more conversations about ghosts when he once again felt someone staring at him.

He turned his head and saw a young girl peeking at him from the doorway--she had pink eyes, long white hair tied back by a red ribbon, and wore a simple black dress with red leggings. This time, she didn't run away.

Maybe he should've been surprised, or should've shouted or something, but the fact that Kyoya had been right once again wasn't a shock anymore. So instead he just said, "Do you want to eat with us?"

Kyoya glanced over at the girl and sat up a bit straighter, watching as she took a few steps closer to the table. From the wreckage she'd been leaving behind, Tasuku hadn't expected someone so timid. "...Can I?"

"Of course. We set a place for you."

At that, the girl bounded up to the table and pulled out the chair the doll had been in--it seemed to have vanished when she appeared--and sat down, taking no time at all to start digging into her meal. Tasuku hoped it was good enough--he was better at cooking than Kyoya, but that _really_ wasn't saying much.

"It's good!"

"Of course. My husband is quite good at what he does." As always, Kyoya said his praise so easily, as if it were only natural, that it was somehow more embarrassing than if he'd proudly bragged about it. Not that there was much to brag about. "What's your name?"

The girl swallowed her bite of food in a rush to respond, and then hesitated, as if she were trying to be polite. It reminded Tasuku a lot of himself when he'd been younger. "Um... My name is Elizabeth. And thank you for the food."

"My name is Kyoya, and his is Tasuku." Kyoya set down his utensils, interest in his food entirely lost in favor of this ghost girl. "Elizabeth, do you want to stay here with us? We can get you books you like and supplies better suited for drawing. Or whatever else you like."

Tasuku was relatively certain that adopting a child, ghostly or otherwise, needed more planning than a single evening--he was pretty sure neither of them were particularly suited for being parents in the first place--but seeing Elizabeth's smile made him reluctant to bring that up. He and Kyoya could work out the details later.

For now, he was just happy to have the chance to give this child something that neither he or Kyoya had gotten when they were children.

**Author's Note:**

> i'm actually a doll collector...!! i own a little under 30 antique porcelain dolls, and i do my best to take care of them! i have yet to have a small child haunt me for being nice to them though and i am certainly not ready to be a parent
> 
> "why is her name elizabeth" i tried to think of the most stereotypical doll name i could that wasn't alice and that was what i came up with. also this means her nickname is going to be lizzie, which is cute. thank you
> 
> [here's the design my friend did of elizabeth!](https://twitter.com/asutoura/status/1159243188097277952)


End file.
